Category Archives: News

From the hearts and minds of Mira Burt-Wintonick and Cristal Duhaime (“Love Me” and “Wiretap”) comes a new audio series: “Pen Pals.”

This new scripted audio series takes unlikely character pairings such as Frederick Nietzsche & Charlie Chaplin and runs with them. The first episode drops on March 15, 2017 and involves the characters of Romeo and Juliet with a twist. What happened after they died?

The show’s cast includes Paul Rust (Love), Noël Wells (Master of None), June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), Mary Holland, Seth Morris and more. The 5-part series will be available on Stitcher Premium. Listeners will be able to sign up for a free month using promo code PENPALS.

Submissions are now open for the 3rd UK International Radio Drama Festival (UKIRDF) that takes place in the historic seaside town of Herne Bay between February 20th-25th, the submission deadline is 31st December 2016.

Through a local FM broadcast the festival airs a variety of radio dramas from across the world, in their native languages, over the course of the festival. Once the dramas have been aired FM audiences will be able to listen to the shows again via our website.

As well as featuring in the festival we are also honoured to be able to have two awards, £2,000 for feature drama and £750 for short drama and there is also a Public Award of £750 voted for from our listeners both online and on air.

What makes the UKIRDF so unique is that we are the biggest international radio drama festival in the UK. The 2016 festival had over 60 submissions from all over the world which enabled the creative team to programme 30 feature programmes and 10 shorts over the festival period.

We aim to truly champion the power of that radio drama continues to play in the lives of audiences and to further this the UKIRDF theme is From Stage To Air, more information on this can be found in the Festival Regulations.

UKIRDF remains a free festival to submit to and we welcome radio dramas from national broadcasters, professional bodies and independent producers.

Tales Of A Timelord: A brand new science fiction audio drama for the extended Whoniverse.

“Slick and fun, in the best traditions of radio sci-fi.” – Roger Dubar (satiria.net / Huffington Post UK)

Taking listeners on a journey through a brand new companion’s eyes, Tales Of A Timelord tells the story of the Doctor somewhere near his 20th regeneration.

Tales Of A Timelord is produced by TOATL Audio, an independent UK creative group working towards universal fame.

“The dialogue is light and fun, the world well-realised and full of detail, the char…acters distinct it’s good and accomplished work and full of potential.” – Simon Guerrier (Big Finish Productions, Co-Author of ‘Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who’)

“Probably one of the best pieces of fan fiction I’ve ever heard.” – Theta Sigma’s Doctor Who Podcast

Tales Of A Timelord is now available to download on iTunes, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and can be viewed on YouTube.

Tales Of A Timelord ( https://talesofatimelord.wordpress.com/ ) is a brand new science fiction audio drama for the extended Whoniverse. The audio drama takes its listeners on a journey through a brand new companion’s eyes with the Doctor somewhere near his 20th regeneration.

Written by R. R. Molyneux Soundscaped, Directed and Produced by Invokal Music by Merlin

The Good Listener is the result of a long and detailed research process undertaken by its creators, writer Fin Kennedy and director Boz Temple-Morris, into the doings of GCHQ, the spy agency responsible for cyber security and digital operations. This is the third outing for the production after one-off radio dramas in 2014 and 2015. During this time Fin and Boz have consulted professionals and experts from all sides, even gaining access to GCHQ itself. Their enquiry has been wide ranging, looking at day to day life inside the ‘doughnut’ as well as the operations themselves and the political context.

This story begins a reluctant Henry Morcombe and his team are preparing to listen in to the G20 conference of world leaders. A cyber-attack is detected that targets the electricity network across London – not unusual in itself, but this one is remarkable in its complexity and resilience. Clearly a major attack is about to unfold. This could be a terrorist act, a criminal one or even an attack sponsored by a nation state. The team need to find the source and neutralise the threat before blackouts bring chaos and major casualties.

Cyber-crime targeting critical infrastructure remains an issue of serious concern to guardians of national security around the world. Highly secretive projects exist not only to defend against such attacks but also to use them offensively against nation state targets.

Owen Teale (Game of Thrones, and currently appearing with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in No Mans Land) stars as Henry Morcombe, an old school GCHQ agent who is fighting from within to keep the agency from becoming like their USA counterparts, NSA, whom he considers to be data-hungry and militaristic.

Holy Mountain are known for innovative productions that are rich in sound and also for tackling serious issues with rigour and balance. See below.

Director and Producer Boz Temple-Morris;

“We’re telling a really good story about normal people trying to do an abnormal job. The work of GCHQ is so central to the way we live today – and vital to our national security – and yet so little little is known about what they do and how they do it. Should we be more grateful for the protection they offer us or more angry at the liberties they take with our privacy? Maybe both? The Good Listener takes the audience inside the doughnut but lets them judge what’s happening for themselves.”

The Good Listener is created by Fin Kennedy and Boz Temple-Morris and also features the work of Hassan Abdulrazzak (writer, part 2) and Anders Lustgarten (writer, part 3).

Influential radio dramatist Tom Lopez has launched a new website for lovers of audio drama.The website allows subscribers to stream a total of 238 hours of radio drama for a small monthly or annual fee.

Lopez has been producing radio/audio stories for 46 years – comic and cosmic adventures, science fiction, mystical mysteries, some with spiritual wisdoms, and some that are just down right fun, family entertainment. His intention has always been to raise consciousness by using the media, radio and audio.

The dramas include performances by a stable of talented actors from the worlds of Broadway, television and avant-garde theater; original music by composer Tim Clark; and real-world ambient sound Lopez has recorded around the globe.

Lopez’s non-profit foundation ZBS produced original stories for Public Radio, Internet Radio, CDs, and MP3 downloads. When radio drama peaked in the 1980’s many of his series aired on the BBC, CBC Canada, ABC Australia, National Public Radio & Armed Forces Radio, including over 500 stations in the US. As radio drama began to disappear from the airwaves, Lopez sought out alternative avenues of distribution that were consistent with his adventurous nature including podcasting.

Over the years Lopez has kept ZBS alive with government grants and commissions for audio books. Fans have played a critical role by donating money and buying his finished radio dramas online.

“People actually give us money to continue to produce,” Lopez says. “These are all public radio listeners. They understand that you have to support not-for-profit arts organizations.”

Fans of radio drama can check out Lopez’s catalogue and find out more information at www.zbsmedia.com.

Newly formed audio production company “Airwayv” launches with 3 audio productions. They include a 14 part comedy series “Taking Care of Paul,” “Iron Will,” and “Snow in Trees,” both of the American Song Play cycle.

From the business insider: the classic Greek tragedy has gotten the audible studios treatment. It stars Hayley Attwell (Peggy Carter from the Marvel Studios films) and is performed by a full cast, including Game of Thrones actor, Julian Glover and Downton Abbey’s Samantha Bond.

The cast also stars Emma Thompson, Jesse Eisenberg, James Franco and Kate Winslet as well as Rosamund Pike, Tim Robbins and Dan Stevens.

The upcoming podcast, “Love Me” from the CBC, is both heartbreaking and filled with such raw, powerful emotions that you can’t help but get a lump in your throat.

Part anecdotal and part audio drama, “Love Me” is what you get when you cross NPR’s “Serial” with audio drama of the 21st century. The shows format is straight forward. Real people reading of their own accounts of what love is to them. Love in this context is broader than the definition most people think of when discussing the complex emotion. It includes things like friendships and the struggle of long distance relationships, across both oceans and languages.

The audio dramas come in at the second half of the episode. The first two range from computer-voiced characters who have a falling out and a game show where the contestant is matched against their own id, ego and super ego. Both are humorous, but the real power lies in the first half. Hearing someone about to break down in tears for a friend they clearly care about is heartbreaking and will hit close to home for a lot of people. For those asking about audio dramas like “The Truth” and other similarly toned podcasts, these are a good couple of episodes and a great start to a series.

More Information

The show is produced by Mira Burt-Wintonick and Cristal Duhaime and is premiering its first episode on Monday June 13, 2016. A preview of the show can be found clicking here. You can also Subscribe on iTunes.

The annual audio arts show is around the corner. Starting June 9 and ending on the 12th, it has a number of lineups for 2016. The show takes place in Kansas City, MO and is in its 4th year. HEAR Now is a festival for audio storytelling enthusiasts. Everything from audio dramas, audiobooks, full-cast readings and more–the event has workshops, live recordings, competitions and everything an audio storytelling fan could want.

Western society has had a big hand on radio dramas success on 20th and 21st century culture. From the invention of the radio to podcasts, the theater of the mind has attracted fans new, far and even across continents. According to the Kathmandu Post, radio dramas have not only been alive in regions other than the North America and Europe, but also in parts of Asia and South America.

In an article written by Deepesh Paudel, published on May 29 of this year, radio drama has become the norm for many in Nepal. For more than six years, the affordability and reliability of the radio has proven a great influence, with 80 percent of people in Nepal saying its their preferred media outlet. “Radio dramas have been playing an integral role in the promotion of behavioural transformation, propagation of moral standards and intervention in various social practices,” says Paudel. The popularity of broadcasts such as Sathi Sanga Mann Kaa Kura, Katha Mitho Sarangiko and Gaun Gaun Ma Singha Durbar have had a long-lasting effect on the citizens of Nepal, and a new style of storytelling has changed the game even further.

Sabido Style

Coined by Mexican Screenwriter Miguel Sabido, the sabido style is the use of techniques found in both serialized dramas and soap operas to bring about social change. In this style of storytelling, the message or moral is more important than the characters or story.

As many in the audio drama field have noted, the singular use of sound to paint an image inside a listener’s head takes a different kind of skills than prose or film can offer. Audio dramas are the blending of screenwriting (dialogue) and the imagination of the individual paint its own image of the setting. Novels, short stories and everything in between use the written word to get this across. All audio dramas have are sound effects and dialogue.

Adding in the Sabido style to an already complex and unique process, makes this method of storytelling difficult. Yet, in Nepal, radio dramas such as “Mai Sari Sunaakhari” have proven that overt theme and stories aren’t mutually exclusive and that it is possible to have both and do it well.

Have your own thoughts? Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments or send an e-mail to editor@audidramadigest.com for a chance to be featured on the site in an editorial.